Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-03-05
AMONG THE LOWLY,
CUPID,S CAPERS AMONG THE MEX.
ICAN PEASANTRY.
The Peculiar Courtship Of Dolores
and Don JOse-Matters of In
terest in Matrimonial Line.
Especial REcoRD-Us1oN Correspondence

Especial REooRD-UsIoN Correspondence
Cry OF MEXICO, February %, 1887.
Having seen how the Mexican aristoc-
racy make love and marry, let US descend
to the other end of the social gamut and
note some of Cupids capers among the
peasantry.
In this miscalled Republic the great gulf
between rich and poor is more firmly fixed
than in any monarchy and forever impas-
sable. Social status is not so much ques-
ton of money as of caste, and nowhere in
the world are distinctions more clearly de-
fined
The so-called CLOVER class in Mexico
are unlike any other on Gods green earth,
because the poorer they are and the lower
down in the social SCALE the more pious
and apparently happy they are. The city
poor, whose adobe huts in the higher alti-
tudes, and cane-stalk jacals in the terra
c0liente outline the suburbs of all the
larger towns and straggle away for miles
beyond incorporated limits, are by no
means the vicious and discontinued ele
ment which may be found among the indi-
gent of London, Paris or New York. No
strikes originate with this class, nor mid
night broils, nor revolutions, and among
them are no low dives, nor the dens of
thieves and murderers, but they are peace
full and inoffensive cattle, little above the
beasts of the field, except in the intensity
of their religious convictions. If traveller
ventures among them, however unpro-
i. tected, not only is he perfectly safe as to
life and property, but any service they can
render HIM is eheerfully performed. If he
is hungry they will share their last tortilla
though short of food themselves, and give
him their only blanket for bed. If he
needs guidance on his journey they will
accompany him any number of miles,
trudging on foot beside his horse, and can
seldom be induced to accept any reward
for their services.
But they are poor enough, heaven knowsl
The salary of the head of the house when
he works, which is only when hungry av-
.erages from six to twenty cents per diem,
and upon that irregular income the family
manages to exist. | have observed sing
Hlar circumstance-not, however, peculiar
to Mexico-that invariably the poorer the
family the more do dogs and children
abound, as if want and squalor were ia
vorable conditions for extraordinary in
crease of the census, both brute and hui
man. But, happily,
NATURE FAvoRs THE POOR
And the lazy in this land of sunshine,
Fuel is not necessity, and food enough
to sustain life may be had anywhere for
the gathering. There need be no house
rent to pay, for any man may build him
self casa with few sun-baked bricks of
his own making, or with stalks of the wild
~ bo 4
thatched with dried grass or Spanish dag
ger leaves.
But it is in the farming communities,
among the peon population, which depends
entirely upon the great haciendas, that
primitive Mexico is seen in all its native
picturesqueness. These enormous estates
are unique institutions, carried on with all
the pomp and circumstance of the feudal
system but lacking the best features of
those historic days. Some of them are
magnificent domains, surprising in ex-
tent the principalities of many Old World
potentates, and fully illustrating the ex-
tremes of wealth and poverty which no.
where else are so clearly defined.
OF course the central feature Of each ha-
cienda is the residence of the proprietor
or his representatives. veritable castle,
though built of adobe. its innumerable
rooms all opening upon an inner court and
capable of housing an entire village.
Then there is the chapel, with its con-
stantly-burning candles, its caricatures of
saints, and native offerings of fruit and
grain piled upon the altar to insure bountl-
full harvests-a sanctuary whose silent but
powerful influence keeps the whole COM
munity in subsection, for the resident
priest is the real ruler of the lives and des-
tiries, the souls and bodies of the peon
communicates. Inside the massive walls,
with their corner towers and rife-slits, that
surround every hacienda, are corrals and
stock-yards to which every night the shep-
perds must bring their hocks and herds for
security from possible raids by robbers or
revolutionists. Within these battered walls
many of which have withstood more
than one desperate siege-are also the ia
Gals of the poems, from fifty TO a hundred
nuts, and sometimes even more on the
larger estates; besides barns and store
houses, granaries, bakery--in short every
thing necessary to the life of village.
AS a rule. the most interesting objects
which the visitor will find on hacienda
are the
NucHAcHAs,
Or girl-peons, than whom more pictu-
rescue type of peasantry cannot be met on
the hills of Normandy or in the wales OF
Switzerland When the numbering old
stage-coach, laden with passengers, comes
Gathering up to the gates of way-side ma
cienda 10 crave shelter for the night, al
ways the first to issue from the gray walls
in answer to the drivers CHEEKY Buenas
dias, senores, is the mucnaeha. True to the
fiber of curiosity which runs through the
nature of every feminine descendant OF
Eve, she is anxious to know who has ar
rived she wants to watch their descent
Al IL nj oil haf
auent movements, and she is quite willing
to get up Irritation on the instant with
any one who may interest her.
Whatever her age, the muchacha is but a
erown-up child fully developed physically
at the age of 10. always simple, picturesque
and contented. Her name is probably
Dolores, Refugio, Guadalupe or Antonio.
Though she never saw bonnet in her life,
and would not know it from hsh-net If
you should give her one, her face is never
freckled and her nut-brown skin IS soft
rs velvet, never having been roughened
by soap, powders or cosmetics. Her hands
and feet are very small, though never man
acled by gloves, shoes or stockings her
limbs are Invariably well rounded, and her
bust superb. Her ietty hair. tied at the
ends by bit of bright-hued ribbon hangs
behind her bare brown shoulders in two
long braids. Its not banged over the eyes
like poodle's, nor crimped like an Ethe-
opian's, but, parted straight through the
middle, is glossy as the ravens wing and
black as the famous atzabatche of her ma
tive hills. The freaks of tickle fashion
make no change in her attire which is al
WAYS the same-nothing on earth but one
short skirt and loose chemise, the latter
generally embroidered about the shoulders,
leaving her symmetrical arms entirely
naked, and. in fact, most of her person to
the waist Sheis entirely unconscious Of a
want of further clothing, and the utmost
ssmarting up she ever INDUCES in Is to
add a string of red beads to her neck, a
brass bracelet or two to her arms, and to
hang pair of enormous silver hoops in
: her ears For church wear and such fest
i've occasions as bull-6ght or function del
qall0, she has blue OF black cotton reboso
Ia sort of long shawl-which, with one
careless toss, she winds tightly over her head